Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Pacific Paddle Games 2017!
Watch out Dana Point USA, Sayulita is coming!!! BIG GRACIAS to those who made a donation to the team and made this trip possible for the chicos! It will be an amazing experience for them...and the parents will have lots of fun too!
Saturday, September 23, 2017
Friday, September 22, 2017
House Hunters International - Margaritas In Sayulita
A fun location shoot here in Sayulita for a program on HGTV. The house the couple decided on is not far from us and we have worked with the Realtor who helped them. Certainly turned out to be a great property for them.
Friday, September 15, 2017
A New Casa In 2017 - Quick Photo Update - September
Some photos from today's walk-thru. September 15th, 2017.
This "pano" shot is of the back section of the house. It is hard to tell but it is about 700 square feet. We have painfully watched this area go in all summer since it needed to be hand excavated and the front of the house where I am standing needed to be complete. This way everything could be built at the right level and tie in seamlessly.
The walls to the left and to the back will get upper level windows to allow light and air but not a view. The wall to the right will have lower windows for the kitchen and living areas. We placed them a bit above the normal room height to give the neighbors some privacy in their backyard. Hopefully if they feel like we are not peering into their lives everyday they won't build their wall up over our windows. No set backs here on the sides of the property. Set backs only to the front and to the back. It is risk you take building like this so we have tried to focus designing the house to the interior vs designing to the exterior and a view that could be covered up by the neighbor at some point.
The house front has been pretty much the same for weeks as the back of the house catches up.
The four corners.
The interior courtyard corner. Will be open to the sky but have some sort of polycarbonate roof structure to protect from rain and provide security. There will be stair access to the rooftop as well.
The living area corner.
The kitchen corner.
The dining area corner. This area was to be the living area but we had to bump the house in about 5 feet or so to protect the tree. The wall being built actually does not sit on a footing but more of a reinforced beam to allow the tree roots to remain undisturbed.
View down the hall to what will be a large front window to allow air flow and bring in light. Opening for stairs from front door. At the end of the hall to the right will be the master bedroom.
Future view from kitchen/living area looking right. Ashley loves the view of the rebar tree. Very common here.
Ashley and I had considered pushing the project up to a 4th level if the price was right. With the exchange rate having gone down and the cost of materials going up it wasn't and would be pushing some of the zoning rules so we decided against it. What we did decide on was to someday create a rooftop patio using materials that are allowed per zoning. A "temporary" roof trellis made from concrete posts and wood or metal support rafters to support another clear polycarbonate rooftop. Many rooftop patios have this and it provide extra room, protection from the elements, is economical and is considered "temporary". Our laundry room will also be on the 4th level and be the only real permanent structure up there. Hopefully zoning will let is slide since it is a utility room and not living space. The 4th level will be accessed from a stair case winding it's way up from the interior courtyard to this view. Nice! This why we bought this lot almost 11 years ago and be hard for the neighbor to block with any new construction...but you never know.
Our contractor says they will be prepping for forming up the roof by the end of the month and that some of the lower rooms will begin to be finished. With the heavy rains we get this time of year it is hard to keep working on finishes with no real roof on. Got to get out of this rental house by December 1. Stress level rising.
For reference. The living room and dining rooms are now switched.
This "pano" shot is of the back section of the house. It is hard to tell but it is about 700 square feet. We have painfully watched this area go in all summer since it needed to be hand excavated and the front of the house where I am standing needed to be complete. This way everything could be built at the right level and tie in seamlessly.
The walls to the left and to the back will get upper level windows to allow light and air but not a view. The wall to the right will have lower windows for the kitchen and living areas. We placed them a bit above the normal room height to give the neighbors some privacy in their backyard. Hopefully if they feel like we are not peering into their lives everyday they won't build their wall up over our windows. No set backs here on the sides of the property. Set backs only to the front and to the back. It is risk you take building like this so we have tried to focus designing the house to the interior vs designing to the exterior and a view that could be covered up by the neighbor at some point.
The house front has been pretty much the same for weeks as the back of the house catches up.
The four corners.
The interior courtyard corner. Will be open to the sky but have some sort of polycarbonate roof structure to protect from rain and provide security. There will be stair access to the rooftop as well.
The living area corner.
The kitchen corner.
The dining area corner. This area was to be the living area but we had to bump the house in about 5 feet or so to protect the tree. The wall being built actually does not sit on a footing but more of a reinforced beam to allow the tree roots to remain undisturbed.
View down the hall to what will be a large front window to allow air flow and bring in light. Opening for stairs from front door. At the end of the hall to the right will be the master bedroom.
Future view from kitchen/living area looking right. Ashley loves the view of the rebar tree. Very common here.
Ashley and I had considered pushing the project up to a 4th level if the price was right. With the exchange rate having gone down and the cost of materials going up it wasn't and would be pushing some of the zoning rules so we decided against it. What we did decide on was to someday create a rooftop patio using materials that are allowed per zoning. A "temporary" roof trellis made from concrete posts and wood or metal support rafters to support another clear polycarbonate rooftop. Many rooftop patios have this and it provide extra room, protection from the elements, is economical and is considered "temporary". Our laundry room will also be on the 4th level and be the only real permanent structure up there. Hopefully zoning will let is slide since it is a utility room and not living space. The 4th level will be accessed from a stair case winding it's way up from the interior courtyard to this view. Nice! This why we bought this lot almost 11 years ago and be hard for the neighbor to block with any new construction...but you never know.
Our contractor says they will be prepping for forming up the roof by the end of the month and that some of the lower rooms will begin to be finished. With the heavy rains we get this time of year it is hard to keep working on finishes with no real roof on. Got to get out of this rental house by December 1. Stress level rising.
For reference. The living room and dining rooms are now switched.
Monday, September 11, 2017
A New Casa In 2017 - How Did We Get Here? Part 2
It is not possible to be brief about this. How we got to this point is only something that could really be understood by someone who has been through it, sweat it out and felt it. The journey is generally different now but some still live in the world I will describe.
Read Part 1 here since it will make this post more understandable.
During our next visit to Sayulita we decided to consider another lot purchase. "The last one went so well let's consider this again" we told ourselves. Real estate everywhere is going up, up, up and if we can buy another property maybe we can sell it down the road and pay off a significant portion of the purchase price from our original purchase. Ok! If we ever want to get rid of it we can just sell it right? We are so smart! Sayulita had gained some momentum as far as exposure was concerned. Fonatur, the tourism engine in Mexico, was putting in a major tourism complex down the road only 15 minutes away. Have you heard of "Cancun". Fonatur, it's creator for better or worse is the ...
Read Part 1 here since it will make this post more understandable.
During our next visit to Sayulita we decided to consider another lot purchase. "The last one went so well let's consider this again" we told ourselves. Real estate everywhere is going up, up, up and if we can buy another property maybe we can sell it down the road and pay off a significant portion of the purchase price from our original purchase. Ok! If we ever want to get rid of it we can just sell it right? We are so smart! Sayulita had gained some momentum as far as exposure was concerned. Fonatur, the tourism engine in Mexico, was putting in a major tourism complex down the road only 15 minutes away. Have you heard of "Cancun". Fonatur, it's creator for better or worse is the ...
"mastermind the infrastructure behind modern tourism in Mexico by developing some prime coastal real estate and encouraging foreign investment in its projects.
If Fonatur is eyeing the area for a major development then maybe we are on the early track to get in on this area plus we really like it. Double bonus! So, we hooked up with a local Realtor and she showed us a property that had just hit the market. It was in an established nicer neighborhood with "pica boo" views of the coast going north. It was even a better asking price than our first purchase. Perfect!! Our Presta Nombre was happy to put her name of the papers and suddenly we were proud owners of two lots in Sayulita.
A little time passes and we thought we were so cool. (Ok, maybe it was just me who thought we were cool). We have two quality lots in Sayulita, Mexico! In a location that we pegged as a great up and coming destination. International investors. Welcome the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. This totally washed all those dreams of having a house in Mexico down the drain along with everything else. Real Estate in Sayulita came to a stand still. We listed both lots immediately but no one wanted to even discuss the idea of a jungle covered lot with no title. If you have cash to make a purchase for a lot, odds are you have cash to buy a fire sale lot in a kick ass location or a house with a title with an owner eager to sell. Casas were selling cheap at bargain prices all over town as second home owners were looking to ditch their investments in Mexico. We were pretty much stuck with something that no one wanted. We were fucked.
Again, time passes and we were stuck paying on this money borrowed from ourselves every month. The process of titling our lots was finally available in 2010. Perhaps if we had lots available with "title" the appeal to buyers would be better and we could sell and lighten our financial burden a bit. So, to be clear, the process for foreigners requires that the titling process from "ejido land" is completed in a Mexican national's name first. The result being that the Mexican national would have the property listed as his or her property on the title deed at the beginning of the process. After that, the title can be transferred to the foreigner in the form of a "Bank Trust". This is a legal classification to allow foreign investors to legally own property in Mexico a certain distance to the coastline. The twist on all this is that, for some reason, we needed new Presta Nombres to carry this process through. In other words, our original Presta Nombre said she was unable(or unwilling) to put her name on the title for the lots. This posed a problem since we did not know many people in town who we would trust to put their names on the documents even temporarily. We ended up tracking down a former baby sitter of the kids whose family worked for lots of people we knew. She was barely 18 at the time but if we trusted her with our children hopefully we could trust her(with the right arrangement) with representing one of our properties. We needed a totally separate and second "Mexican national" to help us to represent our second lot. We just did not know any more people in town so the attorney who was completing the titling process for us recommended his brother as the stand in "Presta Nombre" for the titling process.
Ok, so where does that leave us? Our original Presta Nombre had to step aside. We now have two new Presta Nombres. One who we have used for a baby sitter twice. One we have never met or even talked to. What the hell did we get ourselves in to? Tune in to Part 3.
A little time passes and we thought we were so cool. (Ok, maybe it was just me who thought we were cool). We have two quality lots in Sayulita, Mexico! In a location that we pegged as a great up and coming destination. International investors. Welcome the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. This totally washed all those dreams of having a house in Mexico down the drain along with everything else. Real Estate in Sayulita came to a stand still. We listed both lots immediately but no one wanted to even discuss the idea of a jungle covered lot with no title. If you have cash to make a purchase for a lot, odds are you have cash to buy a fire sale lot in a kick ass location or a house with a title with an owner eager to sell. Casas were selling cheap at bargain prices all over town as second home owners were looking to ditch their investments in Mexico. We were pretty much stuck with something that no one wanted. We were fucked.
Again, time passes and we were stuck paying on this money borrowed from ourselves every month. The process of titling our lots was finally available in 2010. Perhaps if we had lots available with "title" the appeal to buyers would be better and we could sell and lighten our financial burden a bit. So, to be clear, the process for foreigners requires that the titling process from "ejido land" is completed in a Mexican national's name first. The result being that the Mexican national would have the property listed as his or her property on the title deed at the beginning of the process. After that, the title can be transferred to the foreigner in the form of a "Bank Trust". This is a legal classification to allow foreign investors to legally own property in Mexico a certain distance to the coastline. The twist on all this is that, for some reason, we needed new Presta Nombres to carry this process through. In other words, our original Presta Nombre said she was unable(or unwilling) to put her name on the title for the lots. This posed a problem since we did not know many people in town who we would trust to put their names on the documents even temporarily. We ended up tracking down a former baby sitter of the kids whose family worked for lots of people we knew. She was barely 18 at the time but if we trusted her with our children hopefully we could trust her(with the right arrangement) with representing one of our properties. We needed a totally separate and second "Mexican national" to help us to represent our second lot. We just did not know any more people in town so the attorney who was completing the titling process for us recommended his brother as the stand in "Presta Nombre" for the titling process.
Ok, so where does that leave us? Our original Presta Nombre had to step aside. We now have two new Presta Nombres. One who we have used for a baby sitter twice. One we have never met or even talked to. What the hell did we get ourselves in to? Tune in to Part 3.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Mud Season
Having done some of my growing up in Vermont there was always a 5th season each year. Spring, summer, fall, winter, and MUD season. To state the obvious, the seasons here in Sayulita are much milder. So much so that it is sometimes difficult to tell which season it actually is. One season that is easily identifiable is MUD season.
All summer the rains try and try to come and water the plants and wash the jungle clean again. When the rain does come the thirsty earth just drinks it all in until one day the earth decides it will drink no more. The rain starts to come more often and in greater amounts and the town turns into a sloppy mess. Side roads that are not cobble stoned turn into deeply rutted, gooey avenues of mud and only get worse as traffic tries to use these pathways.
This is the top of the road we are building our house on. There has been talk for years about the possibility of cobble stoning it. We hope that this year is the year the rumors become truth and we see a totally improved roadway as it is an important connector out of town for many people. With improvement the road will get busier but at least we will be able to use it.
All summer the rains try and try to come and water the plants and wash the jungle clean again. When the rain does come the thirsty earth just drinks it all in until one day the earth decides it will drink no more. The rain starts to come more often and in greater amounts and the town turns into a sloppy mess. Side roads that are not cobble stoned turn into deeply rutted, gooey avenues of mud and only get worse as traffic tries to use these pathways.
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| Trace getting ride with our neighbor Pepe's ATV
Cars here are just not equipped to handle this kind of terrain for the most part. Many of them do not have great tires or perhaps are rear wheel drive. Few 4x4s. I tried my luck with our little Ford SUV after I saw another car almost get to the top of this hill and have to back all the way down to the next muddy intersection. It took me two tries but I made it. I have to admit I missed my little Mazda truck today.
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| Calle Libertad is slicker than snot |
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